Lemon Meringue Tart in Paris July 26, 2011

I was clearing out pictures from my phone and this was one of the nicer food shots that I took during our holiday in Europe. We went to a cafe to kill time prior to the Lido show. I remembered sitting at a table facing Champs-Elysees, meant for people-watching. I would turn around every so often to watch the coverage of Roland Garros, which was on the television that time. Our waiter was snooty, hated the fact we only wanted water with our desserts. My sister got a crepe, and I opted for a lemon meringue tart.

It looked beautiful, but the lemon curd was too sweet for my liking–it could have used a bit more zip and zing. I’ve done decent a decent lemon curd before;  I just need to make an effort to whip a meringue–I’m pretty sure that’s the reason why the the curd only calls for egg yolks, so you can use the egg whites for a complementary meringue topping!

Pizza…. July 26, 2011

Okay, the crust needs improvement. But this is heaps better than having oily Domino’s Pizza

I made the crust using the Barilla Pizza Kit. Toppings are ham, pineapple, mushrooms, anchovies and mozzarella cheese.

Homemade Hainanese Chicken Rice June 26, 2011

A friend gave me a whole dressed chicken courtesy of her client who works for a poultry company in Perth. I decided to make Hainanese Chicken Rice with it following the recipe from Adam Liaw’s cookbook, Two Asian Kitchens. 

Cooking the chicken was rather easy (although I think it could have used five more minutes during the poaching stage), and doing the three sauces were therapeutic–a lot of pounding using the mortar and pestle. It was delicious, and the meat was very tender and juicy. I loved the chilli and ginger sauces! While I followed the instructions in cooking the chicken and the sauces religiously, I used Won Hup Hainanese Chicken Rice sauce from a jar (a present from Singapore) to make the rice. The broth wasn’t very nice in my opinion, I found it quite greasy and bland.

Overall, I’d make it again. On a side note, I had my kitchen knives professionally sharpened over the week and I’m loving them–I wonder why I waited so long! My knife skills have a lot of room for improvement, but having a sharp knife gives that fluidity which hopefully will improve my food prep speed.

Changes… June 25, 2011

It’s been a slow and cool Saturday so far. Since I returned from my month-long holiday, I did nothing but adjust to new things. We shifted offices when I was away so from my first work day back, I had to get used to a new place, a new routine.

From my easy 20 minute door-to-door commute, I now have to leave by 7:30 AM at the latest if I want it to be a 25 minute door-to-door car ride. If you are late by 10 minutes, the freeway traffic will punish you for it–and trust me, I know. In the afternoon, I find it’s best to leave closer to 6 PM so I miss most of the rush hour traffic going north.

I have to admit that it has made me more efficient. I don’t laze around in the morning anymore. I get out of bed at 6:30 AM at the latest and speed through preparing and eating a proper breakfast, getting dressed and ready to my car in an hour. In the afternoon, that extra hour to kill gives me the incentive to walk/jog around the river, do errands at the nearby shopping centre or do extra work to build up my flex time hours. I come home just thinking of what to have for a nice dinner and relax.

What I find most difficult at the moment is getting enough sleep to power me through each day. I know I should be in bed by 10 but I turn in 11ish at night. My weekend schedule’s been pretty relaxed the last few months but since I got back I’ m just so exhausted come Friday afternoon that I’m in bed before 10 PM! I have to find a balance somehow, I really hate the feeling of needing to catch up on rest during the weekends, makes me lazy to meet up with friends and plan activities (I miss my social life and my hobbies!). I always view weekends as time for me to indulge in being non-productive, but I need to work on flushing the stress out of my system and not just recharging to survive another work week.

Apart from this, things are pretty good, I think. The winter’s been kind to Perth, not very cold at all. And thank goodness there’s rain. The trip to Europe and Singapore just gave me that hit of escapism that I needed. (this deserves another blog entry!)

I’ve discovered two new things since I got back–scenting and small batch baking.

My friend Geraldine has told me about her interest in scenting spaces and I decided to check out Dusk, which is a chain of stores in Australia selling all about ambiance and scenting. I tried their Active Air automatic infuser in Pure and so far, I like it. It kills kitchen odors rather quickly and my place does not smell like a toilet, it smells pleasant. Coincidentally, I discovered Diptyque in Paris during our trip and just had to get a bottle of the Baies room spray for my bedroom. Living in a small apartment, it’s great to be able to keep it smelling fresh, considering how fast kitchen smells can spread and how long they can linger.

Small batch baking…this came up because of a chocolate cake craving. I know all about the 5 minute cake in a mug using a microwave and I tried two recipes but ended up dissatisfied. I’ve been trying to cut down on my microwave use as well so I just had to find a chocolate recipe that is either good for a small cake or can be pre-made in advance. I discovered this blog which led me to this book all about small batch baking. I think it’s a great idea.

Nicest things to hear… April 2, 2011

I’m down with a virus the whole week–probably something I picked up during my trip to Sydney and Melbourne last week.

I spent the last few days going through my episodes of The Secret Life of Us (a 90s Australian TV series), watching local TV, and surfing the internet. I also discovered Bakery Story, Restaurant Story and Farm Story apps on Android. I gave up trying to finish Eat, Pray, Love–I apologize to those who loved the book and film, but it bored me to tears.

The nicest thing happened when my mum called this afternoon and get my nephew (Kyle) on the phone to say hello. Kyle’s doing speech therapy for a few months, and I have never heard him utter a word until today. When he said “hello”, that warmed me up instantly…so happy he’s finally talking, and that he remembers me. Can’t wait to see the little guy when I go home in December. For the meantime, I will get my fix of Kyle stories from my mum. I love it when kids are affectionate–when I met up with Annie last week in Melbourne, I wasn’t sure how to interact with Lori, her daughter, because she was only 2 the last time I saw her. I was pleasantly surprised how friendly Lori has become and I actually enjoyed playing with her.

I got thinking on what other sounds make me smile. While listening to a Sally Seltmann song, I realize I like the sound of church bells too. I grew up hearing church bells at dusk everyday (there is a church in our area), and combined with the memory of seeing things winding down for the day, it just brings me peace–that I can rest easy after a long day.

Happy weekend!

Pasta and Cake January 23, 2011

I managed to do 2 new things this week—make my own pasta and decorate a cake with fondant!

Making pasta is actually easy but managing the roll out process is something that comes with practice. I used the proportion as described in Michael Ruhlmann’s book Ratio of 2 eggs to 1 cup of Italian ’00′ flour. The dough started off quite sticky so I added a bit more flour to make it easier to work with. It’s amazing how the dough develops into this silky mass!

I shaped it into a ball, wrapped it in cling film and put it in the fridge for it to rest for 30 minutes.

I packed away my bag of flour thinking I won’t be needing it but I was wrong! I initially had a hard time handling the pasta sheets because they were sticking so I looked really funny trying to stretch my other arm to grab the bag of flour to dust the work area I ended up redoing that batch! After that I struggled with the length of the pasta sheets–I should have processed then in smaller batches so I can handle a thinner sheet because the pasta came out a little too thick for my taste.

Other that those bits with technique, it wasn’t bad for a first attempt. I’ll make sure to do better the next time around.

Since rolling out the pasta took longer than I expected, my simmering pasta sauce sauce developed a nice depth of flavor to it. It’s my current favorite pasta sauce made with Chevups sausage .

***

Cake decorating is a different story. Putting an extra effort in decorating really shows in the result–it requires patience and creativity. Last Friday, 7 of us assembled over at Cathy’s place to decorate eight 4.5 inch cakes for a birthday party for the 8 January celebrants. Before we can start work fondant decorating, we had to level the cakes and frost it with ganache. Some of the fondant had been pre-mixed with color the week before so we only had to focus on reworking the fondant and making new colors.

We rolled the fondant out on mats dusted with icing sugar and corn flour using rolling pins (it was interesting how we were all comparing our tools!) and when thin enough, we laid them on the cake or cut designs out. I found this process daunting as the fondant can crack if not handled properly, and can stick to the mat is not dusted enough. After the  cake is covered (we covered each cake with skin tone fondant to match a celebrant’s skin tone), the fun begins. We worked on hair styles, accent pieces, distinguishing features…the finished products were very cute!

Try again January 9, 2011

I started reading Tim Ferriss’ book  The 4-Hour Workweek last week and I was confronted with the question “what excites you?”.

I haven’t been writing very much the last 3 years. This blog hasn’t documented a lot of changes in my life, but to make the long story short, answering this question has become  important to me.  Writing helps clear my head, so here I am

So maybe I’ll write about the things that happened to me the last 36 months…right now I’ll mention this much: I am thankful for my mum and great friends who helped me through toughest times!

Weight of the world on my shoulders… June 22, 2010

I’ve been suffering from neck, shoulder and back pain the last few weeks. I reckon it doesn’t help that I tend to be slack with my posture when I’m stressed and occasionally had to carry a heavy bag of groceries due to bad time management.

I went to see my trusted physiologist after work and she basically did dry needling on my shoulders to ‘pop’ the stress bubbles out. For the squeamish, it is a bit weird but I think of the approach as bursting a balloon bubble. However, you only feel drastic improvement after 24 hours.

She also clicked a spine joint in order–she said it was stuck to that’s why I’ve been having dull ache in the middle of my back. I have to be conscious of doing stretches regularly so it doesn’t reach to this point of muscle tension again.

Lately I’ve been working on 2 clients and while the work isn’t hard, staying on top of the details can be exhausting. I work with 3 screens at the moment and it surprises me how deprived I feel not being able to surf freely and use messengers at work. I go online using my mobile and it is a pain, more obvious and costing me data allowance (LOL). It’s a hard habit to break especially now my mum knows how to use instant messaging. It may sound weird but it is comforting knowing that I am able to ping her anytime during the day.

It’s a combination of lack of self-discipline and time management, I guess. I am not sleeping as early as I’d like, not waking up as early as I’d like, not working out as much as I used to…subconsciously, not keeping promises to myself makes me feel disheartened, frustrated and boggled. Well, I just want to be able to relax a bit after work—literally kick of my shoes and lie on the recliner before I have to do anything! And keep weekends free for new things, exploring and meeting up with friends. However, most of the time I am just too tired on weekends…stressing how many items on my to-do list’s still unchecked.

Speaking of friends, so yes, I feel busy but I can’t help being lonely. I’m not clicking with a lot of people nowadays and the ones that I do click with are busy or away. I’m not badminton-crazy nor a photography enthusiast…I can’t help but feel that I don’t fit in. I love food but have to look for people who share the interest enough to do it regularly and who would sincerely enjoy the company of each. My hobby of choice is viewed as indulgent and time-consuming, with lots of cleaning up, but I personally find it fulfilling. I feel full just doing it, I don’t need to stuff myself silly.

Anyway….here’s to embracing the kinks of the body, mind and spirit. I just have to remember to keep the promises I made to myself.

Where has the time gone? February 26, 2010

Longest hiatus EVER….

My Multiply account has been more active, primarily because I prefer to share things with friends. However this blog holds so much history, I couldn’t close it down.

A long weekend is coming up and I am glad that it will be a relaxed one. Hopefully catching up on movies, books, sleep and hanging out at the beach. I haven’t been feeling 100% the last few days, I seem to have caught a cold that just won’t exit my system. It feels like hayfever or an allergy, not sure what’s going on. Nasal spray is my best friend right now. LOL. The weather isn’t helping—today Perth hit 41.5C and forecast is 40C tomorrow.

I wish I booked a short getaway this weekend, but I have to save my leaves from my mom’s visit next month. Lately I’ve been feeling bored at work. My manager has constantly been giving me challenging things to “conquer” but lately I’m just bored. When I’m bored, I start thinking of new things to do, but I came up with one–move back to Melbourne. My friends over east have been encouraging me to move back as the IT market’s picked up, but I’m not sure. I have a network of friends in Perth already, much bigger than my network in Melbourne–do I risk starting anew? (Well, doing a “second time around”).

I’m not sure what I want to happen next.

Oh well, maybe I’m just not thinking clearly. It’s the tiredness talking.

Good night world

Relief March 23, 2009

My mom was transferred back to a regular room after 3 days in the ICU. She underwent rigid bronchoscopy on Tuesday night. The doctors took tissue samples for culturing and discovered many blood clots in her left lung and cleaned them out. A part of her left lung is damaged but wasn’t bleeding that time so they figured the antibiotics would take care of it. At that point, they concluded that my mom has pneumonia.

Her x-rays for the following days showed continuous improvement, but we early Friday morning, my mom had another attack. The doctors were alarmed and advised my mom to consider surgery to remove the damaged part of her lung. They recommended one of the best surgeons around and he came over that evening to discuss his view on my mom’s condition.

To everyone’s surprise, the surgeon ended up refusing to do the operation. He believes that the bleeding came from the scratches in the respiratory tract caused by the bronchoscopy. He advised her to wait and return if her another attack happens. This left us pretty confused and doesn’t really help everyone’s anxiety, but my mom was comfortable with the surgeon’s suggestion so we have to respect that.

My mom was released from the hospital last Saturday night, and her tissue culture tests came out negative for everything, but we’re still waiting for final results whether it’s positive for TB. To be honest, I am happy that my mom’s out of danger, but the fact that they haven’t found out the root cause of the infection, bothers me. The doctors say that the antibiotics probably killed whatever caused it, so for peace of mind, I certainly hope they’re right and that’s it.

Two weeks in hospital left my mom pretty weak on her first day back home. She spent Sunday resting and regaining her strength and appetite for ‘normal’ food. I rang her up a couple of hours ago and she sounded pretty good, much like her normal self. She’s due for another x-ray on Saturday, and I am praying hard (would like to ask again for your prayers) that it will show that she’s recovering nicely and that it only improves going forward.

Thanks to everyone who reached out and prayed for my mom and our family,  I really appreciate the support. To be honest, I have not been sleeping very well and found it difficult to concentrate at work and cried a few times in the office to relieve myself of the anxiety. I hope that my sleeps will be more restful now…